Indiscretions Read Online Free PDF

last word downstairs. If walking away from him could be considered that.
    Vaughan lay on his back away from her, so that a broad expanse of cold sheet lay between them—the space where Lucerne ought to have been. Bella folded her arms and remained propped upright against the pillows. Heaven help her, but she could smell him, all spicy and musky, with a sharp hint of cologne. It took all of her willpower simply to sit still and maintain a steady pace of breathing, when what she wanted to do was to roll towards him and bask in his heat.
    Fact—she wanted Vaughan. More than that, she wanted him to want her. Her whole body tingled simply due to his nearness. She coveted his caress.
    “Are you asleep?” she asked after what felt like an eternity in purgatory, listening to the even sounds of his breathing. Her shift brushed mercilessly against her skin adding to her frustration. She’d put it on out of habit, but most nights she slept without it, pressed naked against Lucerne for warmth.
    “No.”
    “What are you thinking about?”
    “Miss St John.”
    The girl from the recital. He was thinking of Miss St John, not of Lucerne or whatever punishment he had planned for her for colluding against him. For one frightening moment, she wondered if he intended to lie beside her all night and ignore the tug of desire between them.
    “Do you like her?”
    A small chuckle escaped his lips. “No. She’s no nightingale whatever her aunt may think.”
    A smile tugged too at the corners of Bella’s lips. In friendlier moments, on those rare occasions when she and Vaughan truly saw eye to eye, he’d been known to call her his nightingale, though not for her singing proficiency.
    “Vaughan, I didn’t arrange anything with Lucerne. I swear it. I just want him to come home.”
    He remained silent. Bella wished she could discern more of his expression, for the poor light made him even more difficult than normal to read. “I know you didn’t,” he said at last. “You’d have taken me to him if you did, rather than have me drag you home and leave him waiting forlornly somewhere.”
    Bella rolled onto her stomach, reducing the gap between them to a matter of inches. “Is that why you’re not punishing me?
    She felt his snort of mirth, as a tremor in the mattress, rather than heard it. “You’re angling again. Dear God, anyone would think you craved my love, the way you’re prompting me.”
    Smiling Bella rose onto all fours and reached out to make contact with his chest. It wasn’t his love she wanted, not even really his affection, but how he could make her feel. He was bad for her, and she knew it, but like the opium addicts that occasionally moved among society, she continually hankered for another fix.
    Bella splayed her fingers wide across Vaughan’s abdomen. The hard slabs of muscle beneath her fingers tensed, but he did nothing to dissuade her approach. “We both know it’s not about affection.” She leaned closer to whisper, so that her heavy breasts swayed above him and her nipples brushed the diamond of dark hair upon his chest, while the motion also caused her shift to bunch up around her waist.
    Crouched over him, she looked down into his eyes. The black pupils shone in the dark like bottomless pools she could fall into and drown. His other features were less distinct, the sharpness of his cheekbones and jaw line tempered by the lack of light. He still remained the most beautiful man she’d ever met. Beautiful, not handsome like Lucerne, who while angelic, was still more rugged than Vaughan. Rather he was flawlessly saturnine. Lucerne and Vaughan—her angel and her devil, both with personalities to match. No wonder she loved sharing their bed, and risked everything day in, day out in order to do so.
    “You know I don’t just perform for anybody,” Vaughan whispered back, prompting her to further coax.
    Bella flicked her hair back over her shoulders. “But I’m not just anyone. I’m a very persuasive